[PATCH] Universal Search Command Line (USCL)

[dsevil]

2010-08-27: just submitted a new version! .imdb uses mobile site; .show now on by default; new API!

NEW WEB SITE!

NOTICE: If you have both patches ("USCL Notes Patch" and "Command Line") installed, then if you want to run Emergency Patch Recovery, you *must* uninstall the USCL Notes Patch using Preware before running EPR. Reported.



Universal Search Command Line is a patch that does two things:

• Adds a bunch of additional items to the Universal Search menu, beyond Google, Google Maps, Wikipedia, and Twitter. [Hidden by default; use the .show command to show them.] Includes Dictionary.com, Amazon, Google Images, and much more!
• Extends Universal Search with a command line. Commands start with a period.

Example commands:

• .note I like pie.
• .calc (37 * 1.8) + 32
• .dict affluent
• .gis palm pre

You may have heard about KeyToss. This thing is different in the following ways:

• KeyToss adds KeyToss to Universal Search; you must use an @ command to specify what you want to search. This thing adds a bunch of things directly to Universal Search [remember, hidden by default].
• KeyToss only adds searches based on web sites. This thing provides additional functionality. This includes .note, .calc, .gps on/off, and much more!
• This thing doesn't have all the sites that KeyToss does, but there is a .keytoss command (and Universal Search item).

A maybe-incomplete list of commands available:
- .help
- .show and .hide (to show/hide most of these from the Universal Search menu)
- .restart luna
- .memo|.note|.m|.n text (creates a new memo with a timestamp)
- .calc expression
- .yahoo|.y keywords
- .gis keywords (Google Image Search)
- .shop keywords (Google Product Search)
- .news keywords (Google News Search)
- .amazon|.az keywords
- .google|.g keywords
- .wikipedia|.w keywords
- .dict|.d word (Dictionary.com)
- .thes|.th word (Thesaurus.com)
- .beer|.ba keywords (BeerAdvocate)
- .ratebeer|.rb keywords
- .ebay keywords

Now available from Preware:
- User-defined commands if you have a file called uscl.json on the USB drive's root directory. Example uscl.json file. Use the ".update" command after copying/modifying/deleting uscl.json. SYNTAX IS STRICT JSON.
- .quicknote <text> - This allows you to enter a new note without launching Notes. I STRONGLY RECOMMEND upgrading the USCL Notes Patch (whenever it comes out) if you're going to use this.
Commands related to location services:
- .gps on/off
- .usegoogle on/off (rough location using cell towers)
- .autolocate on/off
- .geotag on/off
- .bgdata on/off (Background Data Collection)
Command related to the system:
- .rescan
- .restart java
Additional searches:
- .wolfram <keywords>
- .snopes <keywords>
- .keytoss <keywords>
- .maps <keywords> - for completeness
- ..cmd <keywords> - shortcut for .keytoss
Hiding individual commands:
- .hide <cmd> ...
- .show <cmd> ...
- .show all
Other stuff:
- In .calc you can say things like sin(x) instead of Math.sin(x).
- You can type the command after the keywords now, e.g., "i am america .amazon"


Available on the webos-patches feed (using Preware, etc.) and from my web site (using webOS Quick Install, etc.).

uscl.patch patches com.palm.launcher to provide the basics.
uscl-notes.patch patches com.palm.app.notes to enable the ".note" command.

Consider it MIT Open Source Licensed. Enjoy!

BEFORE YOU REPORT A PROBLEM INSTALLING OR REMOVING THESE PATCHES:

1. Read at least the past page or two of this thread. Depending on your problem, you might also read the last few pages of the Preware thread and/or the webOS Quick Install thread.

2. Don't report problems without pasting the errors from the IPKG Log. When using Preware, generally you'll be prompted with the message: "Error Installing: See IPKG Log". That's referring to a file called "webos-patches.log" on the USB drive. Copy the last section of that file and email it to me or paste it here. Preferably between [code] and [/code] tags.

3. If you are using webOS Quick Install on Mac OS X to install this patch and you see the message "Hunk #1 FAILED at 10" — then use Preware instead. Forum user Dr. Grace also experienced this, and I've reported it in the webOSQI thread. This is an OS X specific problem. webOSQI on Windows is known to install this patch just fine.

What's New

2010-04-04 --- Implemented .task and .quicktask to add tasks to the built-in Tasks application.

[enormous]

Great work! Any chance of getting this into the Preware patches feed?

[dsevil]

Eventually.

[dBsooner]

Originally Posted by enormous

Great work! Any chance of getting this into the Preware patches feed?

Originally Posted by dsevil

Eventually.

As in tonight? Let me know.

[daventx]

Very very cool!

[rlanza1054]

Cool and I just paid for a stupid Dictionary from the app catalog and could not get a refund after I realized it was web dependent. Boy, did that company get an ear full.

This is great!

Thanks!

Rob

[dsevil]

Just submitted both patches to webos-patches.

[dBsooner]

I just lowered it to 5 mins. Even though it's been 15 for you. LOL. I lowered the wait to 5 minutes.

[dsevil]

Originally Posted by rlanza1054

Cool and I just paid for a stupid Dictionary from the app catalog and could not get a refund after I realized it was web dependent.

Well... to be fair, ".dict" and ".thes" are web dependent as well. They just look things up on dictionary.com and thesaurus.com, respectively. But at least my patch is free.

[dsevil]

Originally Posted by dBsooner

I just lowered it to 5 mins. Even though it's been 15 for you. LOL. I lowered the wait to 5 minutes.

Sweet!

[dBsooner]

This is in the feed now. (Both Patches).

I will point out USCL is not compatible with KeyToss Keyword search. If one is already installed, you can't install the other. There is only one line that fails. It is somewhere around 2096. I am too tired to look at the patch files to tell you the line that conflicts, but maybe you can look into modifying that line somehow to make it compatible with each other.

Good stuff though, I removed KeyToss Keyword search for now to get these installed.

[2sslow]

Originally Posted by dBsooner

This is in the feed now. (Both Patches).

I will point out USCL is not compatible with KeyToss Keyword search. If one is already installed, you can't install the other. There is only one line that fails. It is somewhere around 2096. I am too tired to look at the patch files to tell you the line that conflicts, but maybe you can look into modifying that line somehow to make it compatible with each other.

Good stuff though, I removed KeyToss Keyword search for now to get these installed.

Damn you beat me to it! lol

[fallen]

This is amazing, the possibilities are exciting.

By the way, when I type in '.help' I get a error message, I attached a pic of it in the attachment. Everything else working excellently, though.

I also posted a message in the 'Music Player (Remix)' forum, asking if there was anyway to incorporate remix with this, I don't know if it is possible, though. But if there is way on his end, that would amazing if you two could work out way to do that. What I had in mind is being able to have remix load strait to a playlist, or anything rely, off of a command from your patch, but like I said, I don't know if it is possible on his end.

I would also be glad to donate, if you posted link to do so.

[prubin]

I get an "unable to load page" error. Tried .memo, .help, and .dict.

some stuff, then
Unable to resolve host. (2006)

tried luna restart (toget command line prompt) full restart, still get error.

[dsevil]

EDIT: I've fixed the ".help" bug and it's on its way to webos-patches. New version of patch posted as attachment to the OP, and also available on my web site also listed in the OP.

A more immediate workaround for the ".help" bug: type arguments after it, e.g., ".help foo" (the "foo" is ignored). I'm fixing this.

I cannot reproduce @prubin's errors with ".memo" or ".dict". Sounds like a network connectivity issue. Kind of odd that ".memo" would trigger it, because it doesn't use the network. Have you tried just going to a web site? Are you using WebOS 1.2.1?

[prubin]

My error. I tapped on the link instead of hitting enter. It works now.

[dsevil]

Next on the list:
- Make tapping on the link instead of hitting Enter work. I actually don't understand how it could not work but I'll have to just look at the code again.
- Fix compatibility issue with KeyToss.

[fallen]

I thought of some commands that you could think about adding

restart stuff - something like '.restart' you could all sorts of stuff there, like 'lune' 'java' 'phone' or 'pre'(I know there is a keyboard shortcut for that one)

turn GPS on and off - instead of a toggle(but you could just do both), it could be something like '.gps on' and if it was already on, it would just ignore the command, same thing would go for '.gps off'. and maybe a '.gps ?' and it would tell you if it was on or off.

turn Data on and off - same as above

Turn all radios on and off - same as above - the '.radios ?' would be particularly cool for this one.

I know there are already app toggles for most of these, I have them on my pre, but it would make it more simple to add them here, that way everything is more centralized, and there is less toggles cluttering everything up, and it would just plain cool to open up your phone do all of this.


Just some ideas

[aric]

I need some help. I installed the uscl.patch and the uscl-notes.patch using WebOSQuickinstall. They work fine, but I'd like to uninstall them and reinstall them now they are on the feeds in Preware (for ease of updating). The problem is I can't seem to find them anywhere using either preware (in both the patchs and unknown categories) or using WebOSQI in device management (in both applications and patch categories).

I know about the emergency patch recovery, but I REALLY don't want to use it for two reasons; first, since neither preware nor WebOSQI can find it, I am uncertain that it will be uninstalled, and second, I really don't want to have to reinstall all the patches that are working fine.

I guess what I'm asking is if the op during the development of these patches had any issues removing these patches during testing. Also, if they where installed with quilt or WebOSQI.

Although I'm not certain how WebOSQI installs patches, i did check to see if this patch was installed with ipkg using this command:

ipkg -o /var list_installed

i also
ipkg -o /var list_installed | grep command
ipkg -o /var list_installed | grep uscl

but I don't see the patch installed anywhere. However, they are in /var/usr/palm/applications/
org.webosinternals.patches.uscl
org.webosinternals.patches.uscl-notes.

Thoroughly mystified.


Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[jeffmcc]

Originally Posted by enormous

Great work! Any chance of getting this into the Preware patches feed?

you should check....its there...